Matthew 5: 1-12
5 Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.2 And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: Dear Friends in Christ, The kingdom of God is like a married couple sitting at their kitchen table arguing about their finances. Their monthly bills are spread before them, and the husband is worried and he’s frustrated and he doesn’t know how they will make it. The cup is half empty and getting emptier, as he sees it. His wife remembers that there is money in the savings account, and she looks forward to the raise that her husband will be getting and she’s not at all worried and is certain they will be alright. The cup is half full and holding its own, as she sees it. Three different times, their war of words gets interrupted by three different children, asking for their cups of lemonade to be refilled. The children could not have cared less about family finances, they just knew that their parents would be glad to bless them with more lemonade. In our Epistle Lesson for today, the apostle John invites us to revel in the simple truth that our Father in heaven has declared us to be His children, and so we are. One of the problems of growing into adulthood is that we stop acting as children, in terms of receiving the blessings of our Father in heaven. We imagine that we have earned our blessings and we start to worry about whether our blessings will be sufficient into the future, and before you know it, in all kinds of ways, we start to argue with each other and with ourselves, whether the cup is half full or half empty. In terms of spiritual blessings, whether you see the cup as half full or half empty, know that it is (refillable!) According to the church year, today is All Saints’ Day. The word “saint” in its primary meaning, as used in Scripture, refers to those who have been “set apart” and declared to be holy by the forgiveness of Jesus Christ. In this sense, therefore, all Christians, including those who are weak in their faith, are saints before God through the merits of their Savior. Jesus began His sermon on the mount by nine times declaring His disciples blessed because of what God had in store for them. Jesus was not making ethical demands of His followers but was describing blessings they would fully enjoy in the new heaven and the new earth. Blessings they could also enjoy by faith here and now. Our sermon theme today is “Blessed”. The first four beatitudes invite us to think about what it means to be children of our heavenly father, and the next three ask us to reflect on what it means to be brothers and sisters in Christ. As children of God, we learn again today that we are in fact Blessed as often as we enjoy what our Father is (giving). Jesus says it this way, Blessed are the beggarly in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of the heavens.” Jesus gives us a picture of a cringing and crouching and a wretched kind of a guy who brings nothing at all to the plate. The world sees beggars as cursed, but Jesus teaches us that The riches of the future belong to the beggarly in spirit already (here and now). The poverty referred to is an attitude of a child who recognizes that all he is or possesses comes from his parents. The attitude of a messed up person who is convinced he can’t fix himself. The attitude of a broken and contrite person whose despair turns to joy as He hears that His Father in heaven is not despising Him. Even better than that, his name is written in the book of life, a mansion in heaven is on reserve for him, the riches of the future are already here. Again, Jesus declares, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” This second pronouncement is as paradoxical as the first. The verb “mourning” indicates a loud crying out such as lamenting for the dead or for a severe and painful loss. We think not only of being sorry for our sins, but all grief and sorrow due to the power of sin in this world, whatever inflicts blows, losses, and pain upon the godly. It includes every wrong done to us, as well as every painful consequence of our own wrongdoing. In the first reading for today, Christians are pictured as those coming out of the great tribulation. Those who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. The world sees the church as full of do-gooders wearing robes of hypocrisy. And there is a fair amount of truth in that perception. Today we see again that we have been given Robes that keep on losing their (stains). Day after day, we sin and fall short of the glory of God, some days really short. As often as we cry out for a word reassurance and comfort, reassurance and comfort are ours! Jesus declares, “Blessed are the meek, for just they shall inherit the earth. The kingdom of God is like a man the world sees as mild mannered, calm, cool, and collected. A man who can be pushed around and almost never will push back. In high school, he could have been voted most likely not to succeed. Jesus would predict just the opposite on this All Saints’ Sunday. That in fact this man is already enjoying an inheritance fought for and earned by (another). He rejoices in what is yet to come, even as he enjoys already here and now blessings too numerous to count. Notice the sign outside our church, “Get rich quick. Count your blessings!” Jesus says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. We think here of the Fourth Petition, Give us this day our daily bread. Daily we cry for forgiveness, and daily God satisfies us. Satisfied one day at a (time). In terms of physical eating and drinking, we know that food and drink tastes best when we’re really hungry and thirsty. So also in terms of spiritual eating and drinking, if we stop being hungry and thirsty, Jesus could no longer pronounce us blessed, he could no longer satisfy us. Lesson #1 today is to live one day at a time, believing that the sins of our past are forgiven, believing that the troubles of our future are in the hands of Almighty God, leaving us with just today to enjoy what our Father is giving. If lesson #1 was to live as children in relationship with a loving Father, lesson #2 is to live as brothers and sisters in Christ giving away all that we have received. Part 2 of our sermon today is that we are Blessed as often as we look out for our siblings, just (for the fun of it). This week, the Griffin family is headed for sunny Florida for our baby boy Noah’s wedding to a beautiful Christian young lady Jenna. Noah wasn’t really an afterthought in our family, but he is the caboose. When he was born, his siblings were 12, 11, and 6 years old. Especially the older two, Heather and Nate looked out for Noah and I would like to think it wasn’t entirely out of a sense of duty. More often than not, they seemed to have fun doing it. Perhaps Jesus had that in mind when He declared, Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. The first four beatitudes look toward God, the next three towards other people in our lives. Mercy and pure hearts and peacemaking are three virtues which mark Christians as blessed. Luther wrote that in all the beatitudes faith is presupposed as the tree on which all the fruit of blessedness grows. With God grace is always first and mercy second. First God makes us merciful and then blesses us for being merciful. More and more as we live in and enjoy His grace, our old sinful nature’s desire to give people what we think they deserve gives way to a new and desire to be merciful. “Have to” attitudes give way to (“get to”) habits. No longer do I say that I have to provide for my children and I have to take care of my parents in their old age and I have to be nice to people who really irritate me, but rather I get to go to work and I get to rake my neighbor’s leaves and I get to go on a mission trip and I get to listen to my neighbor’s hurting heart one more time. Beatitude #6 - “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are they who are hearing the Word of God and keeping it and holding it dear and near to their hearts. As they do so, they find their human agendas giving way to heavenly (visions). Less concerned about 401k pension plans and more interested in the Vision Statement of their local congregation. Less motivated to get ahead in the corporate world and more focused on the Second Coming of Christ. Less multitasking and more fixing their eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of faith. Not so much woe is me and why is my life so dull and more blessed am I and what is my next step in terms of letting my Gospel light shine all over my neighborhood. Beatitude #7, Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons[a] of God. To be at peace with God is to have a peace the world cannot give. The author John Piper wrote in his book, This Momentary Marriage, that “all of us, married and single, are supposed to live hour by hour by the forgiving, justifying, all supplying grace of God and then bend it out to all the others in our lives.” I like that picture of bending God’s grace out into other people’s lives. Being at peace with God and then living in peace, if possible, with others and working to keep and to make peace wherever peace is threatened or lost. This isn’t a “peace at any price” kind of peace which ignores Biblical truth, but rather the truth of God’s Word comes first, peace with people second. Friends are dear, the Word of our greatest Friend dearest. As we spend our days rejoicing in what a friend we really do have in Jesus, we find the rainy days to be not quite so dreary, the challenges of ordinary life to be not quite so daunting, and the future to be quite so formidable. We find our small mindedness giving way to the big picture and our last point of the day, Pettiness giving way to (sweet peace). Just yesterday, I was privileged to spend time with a good friend, an alumni of our school, a former confirmation class student of mine, who recently came back home after spending 32 months in prison. I shook his hand for the first time since his day of Confirmation, the day he was wearing a white robe made white in the blood of the Lamb. He’s been through what I would consider hell on earth, but the look in his eyes said everything I needed to know about him. The look in his eyes told me that he was blessed. Blessed to be enjoying the riches of his future already now. Blessed with a white robe that keeps on losing its stain. Blessed with an inheritance fought for and earned by another. Blessed by knowing what it means to live one day at a time. Blessed as he begins a new chapter of life where he will be looking out for his brothers and sisters in Christ. His “have to” attitude has given way to a “get to” way of looking at life. His human agenda is giving way to a heavenly vision, and whatever used to be ruling in his heart, Someone way better has taken its place. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
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